See How Danny Brown Lost His Teeth in Giddy ‘Grown Up’ Video

One of the year's best rap songs gets similarly masterful visuals

Danny Brown has given us all another immaculate reason not to sleep on his euphoric free-download track “Grown Up.” First posted online in March, the song sets sumptuously laid-back, organic-sounding production by Action Bronson collaborator Party Supplies beneath some of the XXX rapper’s most introspective, instantly appealing lyrics yet. Directed by Greg Brunkalla, who oversaw the New York Times’ Emmy-nominated “Screen Tests” series, the video is an equally outstanding work of storytelling.

As Brown rhymes conversationally, in his distinctively pinched voice, about the distance between his rough Detroit upbringing and his recent acclaim, a young doppelganger for the MC swaggers around those self-same childhood streets. The adorable kid pushes over the garbage can at the playground, throws around clothes at the store, and shows us how Brown got that characteristic gap in his teeth, all while showing off the elder rapper’s winningly idiosyncratic fashion sense. In the end, we see the man himself, grown up, and ready for his public.